1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to cooking containers used with microwave ovens and, more particularly, to cooking containers designed to brown or scorch slightly both sides of several sliced pieces of bread at the same time using microwaves of a microwave oven while toasting the bread, and to fry an egg at the same time as toasting the sliced bread, thus allowing a user to easily and quickly prepare toasted bread with fried eggs. The present invention also relates to a microwave oven provided with such a cooking container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, a microwave oven is an electrically operated oven, which heats and/or cooks food placed in its cooking cavity using high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated by the oscillation of a magnetron installed in a machine room. That is, during an operation of such a microwave oven, the magnetron inside the machine room of the oven radiates high-frequency electromagnetic waves, so-called “microwaves,” through the cooking cavity. The microwaves thus penetrate food so as to repeatedly change the molecular arrangement of moisture laden in the food, thus causing the molecules of moisture to vibrate and generating frictional heat within the food to cook it. A cooking tray is set on the bottom of the cooking cavity, and is loaded with food thereon. The cooking tray loaded with food is turned at a low speed, thus allowing the microwaves to uniformly penetrate the entire area of the food.
A variety of cooking containers have been used to contain food therein when it is desired to cook or heat the food in the cooking cavity of such a microwave oven during the process of cooking. Such cooking containers have been typically made of materials capable of allowing a transmission of microwaves through them to cook or heat the food. In recent years, specifically designed cooking containers for microwave ovens, which emit heat when exposed to microwaves, thus browning or scorching slightly both sides of food, such as sliced bread, pizza, or fish contained therein, have been proposed and used.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional cooking container used with microwave ovens, which is designed to brown or scorch slightly both sides of food, such as sliced bread or pizza.
As illustrated in the drawing, the conventional cooking container used with microwave ovens comprises a pan body 1, on which food, such as sliced bread or pizza, is placed. The open top of the body 1 is provided with a lid 5 to cover food. The body 1 consists of a heating part 2 and a heat transfer part 3. The heating part 2 is made of a mixture of rubber and ferrite, and emits heat when it is exposed to microwaves. The heat transfer part 3 is formed on the upper surface of the heating part 2, and transfers heat from the heating part 2 to the lower side of the food. In the same manner as that described for the pan body 1, the lid 5 consists of a heating part 6 and a heat transfer part 7. The heating part 6 of the lid 5 is made of a mixture of rubber and ferrite, and emits heat when it is exposed to microwaves. The heat transfer part 7 of the lid 5 is formed on the lower surface of the heating part 6, and transfers heat from the heating part 6 to the upper side of the food.
In order to space the lid 5 from the body 1 by a predetermined gap, thereby preventing an undesired generation of microwave-induced sparks between the body 1 and the lid 5, a plurality of spacers 4 extend upward from the heating part 2 of the body 1 such that the spacers 4 pass through the heat transfer part 3 until they project by a certain height from the upper surface of said heat transfer part 3.
In order to brown or scorch slightly both sides of food, such as sliced bread or pizza, using such a cooking container, the food is placed in the body 1 and covered with the lid 5, and the container is seated in the cooking cavity of the microwave oven. When turning the microwave oven on after seating the container in the cooking cavity, a magnetron radiates microwaves through the cooking cavity. The two heating parts 2 and 6 of the body 1 and lid 5, respectively, absorb the microwaves, and emit heat to the associated heat transfer parts 3 and 7 such that the heat transfer parts 3 and 7 are intensely heated to increase their temperatures, thus browning and scorching both sides of the food.
However, such a conventional cooking container used with microwave ovens is problematic in that the two heat transfer parts of such cooking containers are typically made of aluminum. In addition, the cooking containers are designed such that the heat transfer parts made of aluminum come into direct contact with food during the process of cooking. Therefore, acid or alkaline substances of food may easily corrode aluminum of the heat transfer parts, thus forming corroded areas at the heat transfer parts. Dregs of food may be caught and spoiled at the corroded areas, and so the conventional cooking containers may produce a variety of harmful substances, which are bad for human health.
In addition, during the process of cooking, food may be easily stuck to and excessively scorched at the highly heated aluminum surfaces of the heat transfer parts. In such a case, the food gives off odor to contaminate the atmosphere around the microwave oven, thus upsetting persons around the oven. In addition, it is very difficult to wash the cooking container when food is stuck to and excessively scorched at the aluminum surfaces of the heat transfer parts.
Due to the spacers provided at the pan body to prevent generation of microwave-induced sparks between the body and the lid, the lid may not come into contact with the upper side of food. In such a case, a sufficient quantity of heat is not transferred to the upper side of the food, and so the upper and lower sides of the food may not be uniformly cooked.
Sliced bread or pizza typically contains a substantial quantity of moisture, and generates steam during the process of cooking. However, the conventional cooking container used with microwave ovens does not have any means to effectively or quickly exhaust such steam, and so a steam layer may be formed between the lower side of food and the body of the container, thus preventing the food from being browned or scorched to a desired amount.
Another problem of the conventional cooking container used with microwave ovens is that the conventional container has a structure merely suitable to cook the same kind of food at one time, thus forcing a user, wanting to eat toasted bread with fried eggs, to separately fry the eggs and then toast the sliced bread or visa versa.